DESPITE increased rice production and export last year, the value of exports was lower than in 2014, Head of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Nizam Hassan, told the Government Information Agency (GINA).Hassan said the value was 11.48 per cent lower than what obtained in 2014; and for the period January to December 2015, the value of exports was US$220.85M compared to US$249.4M for 2014.
He attributed the lowering of the value exported to the price being paid. When Guyana exported to Venezuela, the price received from that country was US$760 per tonne of rice, but after the loss of that market, Guyana has had to settle for between US $340 and US $400 per tonne, Hassan explained.

Guyana last year exported rice to countries in North America, Latin America, West Africa, European Union and CARICOM. Of those exports, the Latin American countries accounted for the largest revenue generation, importing as much as US$99.5M worth of paddy.

FINDING ADDITIONAL MARKETS
The GRDB head said the agency and other stakeholders remain committed to finding additional markets for rice producers in countries across the region and further afield. He said that, for 2015, the export figure stood at 537,334 tonnes, as compared to 501,208 tonnes for 2014. This represents 7.21 per cent more than the total export figure for 2014.

Rice production last year surpassed that of the previous year, with paddy production standing at 1,058,129 tonnes, equivalent to 687,784 tonnes of rice. Hassan told GINA that the figure represented 80,840 tonnes or 8.27 per cent more production of paddy than 2014.

Paddy produced in 2014 amounted to 977,289 tonnes, equivalent to 635,238 tonnes of rice.

RESEARCH
Additionally, the GRDB is playing an integral role in the research and experimentation of various types of rice, in order to boost production of stronger and resilient varieties. The strains of rice GRDB 12, GRDB 13 and GRDB 14 will continue to expand in acreage in 2016. Nineteen advanced breeding lines are currently being tested in advanced yield trials in four locations across the country.
These candidate varieties will be tested in farmers’ fields, and if found suitable, will be released, GINA said.

Sixty-five advanced breeding lines are currently being tested at the Research Station at Burma. Each season, over 4,000 breeding lines are studied by the team at the Research Station. As such, the GRDB will be implementing a proactive programme to manage ‘red rice’. Similarly, comprehensive studies will be done on the paddy bug menace and its management, aimed at reducing losses.

At least 500 varieties of paddy from international research institutes and centres are this year expected to be accessed.